Ideas Matter

Late night, scatterbrained post. Engage!

I'm one that believes ideas (principles, core beliefs, etc) are the life's blood of the human soul. Even those who proclaim apathy to politics still have views and convictions. Ideas matter. They always matter. So when it comes to Israel, why do the left's support of tolerance, unity and pan-ethnic love take second fiddle to the goals of the Islamists?

If you question a liberal or a leftist on their support of Islamist groups, they'll deny it. They don't support Hamas, they support the people of Palestine. They don't support Iran, but they don't want anyone interfering with its drive for nukes either. Most of the people on the left that I'm friends with are not supporters of Islamism, which is the antithesis to most of their goals, they're just not supporters of Israel. Enemy of my enemy and all that.

Yet, the chorus on Israel isn't strategic, its moral. The Guardian, the socialists and the rest aren't saying they're supporting the Islamist-led attacks on Israel because Israel is a “racist” state and “oppressive”. I'll grant that from a far-left humanism/world love perspective, a nation solely dedicated to Judaism is pretty repulsive (aside from the fact Israel has a very open society and a healthy political culture that spans the entire spectrum). As would a nation solely dedicated to Islam... like Hama's Gaza, Hizbullah-occupied territories in Lebanon or Iran. Yet, we don't hear much about them and their homophobia, their anti-woman ideology or their extra-judicial violence.

It doesn't do the left any good to build it's high ground on sand.

Ideas matter. Your convictions matter. If you believe in secularism and unity and unicorns turning the world's religions into pillows, you goddamn well better have the stones to shoot in all directions at all times. You may fool the media. You may get the handshakes of terrorists and tyrant leaders. You may get your face ironically plastered all over merchandise sold at anti-capitalist fairs. But in the eyes of the the truly passionate and truth-seeking folk like we have here at Generation Patriot and across the anti-partisan blogosphere on all sides, you aren't heroes. Ganhdi was a hero. MLK was a hero. The wannabe shaeed on the flotilla were douches and their Western kin were douches with strings connected to their ideological polar opposites.